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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26009566">JumbledTale</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Paulgrobe/pseuds/Paulgrobe'>Paulgrobe</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Undertale (Video Game)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe, Female Chara (Undertale), Gen, Implied/Referenced Character Death</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-08-20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-09-06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 04:42:20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,520</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26009566</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Paulgrobe/pseuds/Paulgrobe</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Ball Game</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Something repeatedly kept hitting the girl's head. Her mind was slowly trying to recover from her unconsciousness, and she tried to remember where she was, and what happened. She did remember falling in some sort of hole, but that was about it. She slowly opened her eyes, to see a bed of golden flowers below her. She laboriously managed to lift her head upwards, to see a red ball, which had been bouncing between her head and a wall next to her. However, much to her misfortune, it was now aiming straight for her face. She barely managed to lift up her hand to shield it, and the ball flew onto the ground in front of a longer and thinner, almost hallway-like cavern. Much to her shock, a dog-like face emerged from it. While the face was turned sideways, it quickly turned straight with the sound of stretching rubber. And to make things even weirder, the thing started to talk. "You're finally awake. I almost thought you were dead or something. You must be confused where you are, so let me explain. This is the Underground. Now, what is your name, fallen human?"<br/>The girl had to think an unusual amount of time before the memory finally floated above. "M-my name is Candice… I b-believe…"<br/>"Candice… So that is the true name? Excellent", the ball continued. "Now, how about we play a little game i came up with? I call it "Kill Everyone". Sounds fun, right?" As he said these last words, the ball started to vibrate rapidly, seemingly even clipping into the ground at points. <br/>Candice did a step backwards in fear. "K-kill E-everyone? W-why would someone d-do that?! And h-how is that f-fun?" The ball started to laugh. "Oh, it's very simple. You see, the Underground is the unfriendly world where everyone has to die!" The ball stopped vibrating, and its friendly face suddenly turned into that of an agressive pitbull. "But from your response, i can already see you're not going to slay them. However, there's one thing i'll teach you: your choices don't matter. I'll just take your soul to do it myself, if you aren't going to. So, let's play a ball game instead." White bouncing balls appeared all around her, and the living ball also turned completely white, as their surroundings blackened. A blue heart suddenly could be seen inside of her chest, and as the balls suddenly stopped bouncing, they all fired towards her, aiming straight for this heart…<br/>Out of nowhere, a wall of vines surrounded her, blocking the balls. As they quickly retracted back into the ground, she was just able to see how another one forcefully grabbed the ball and launched it away through the hallway like a catapult. A few moments later, a brown-haired human wearing a frayed black cloak with multiple patches entered the room. She was just able to see them stashing away an overgrown wooden stick into one of their pockets. "Did that nasty creature hurt you?", they asked. Candice shook her head, to which the human let out a sigh of relief. "That is good to hear. You weren't its first victim, and likely not the last either. But anyways, let me introduce myself. I am Frisk, the caretaker of the ruins up ahead. And who are you?" Candice told them her name, but also that she could not remember anything else. Frisk gave them a look of concern. "Well, i hope you'll find your memories back quickly. But now, the path ahead is quite dangerous, so please follow me until i have taught you how things work down here." Frisk turned back towards the hallway and proceeded towards a doorway at the end of it into the next room. Candice looked if the ball was still there, but it was nowhere to be seen. Before Frisk could go through the door, Candice asked them what this creature was, to which Frisk let out a sigh. "I wish i knew, but all i know of it is that it attempts to attack anything it encounters. We dubbed it "The Murderous Ball" because of this."<br/>They passed through another cavern similar to the one they came from, although with an apple tree standing in the center rather than a golden flower bed, but at the other end of the door was a marvelous sight. They were standing inside of a tall pink room, with another doorway at the top of some stairs right in front of them. At their bottom lay another bed of golden flowers, with a glowing star floating right in its center, which Candice curiously walked towards. The star gave off a soothing energy, and as she touched it, a warm sensation flowed through her body. As they looked up, she saw Frisk standing behind them.<br/>"So now you have the power, how peculiar…", they mumbled, but they quickly snapped out of their thought to explain. "That was what i like to call a SAVE Point. Their power allows you to return if… Something terrible happens. The power to turn back time... I used to be the one in control of them before you fell, but it seems that after all these years down here, my Determination has severely depleted, allowing you to use it." Frisk walked towards the door, but Candice sat there for a moment, thinking. Who was she? Where did she come from? How did she get here? She made herself a promise. She would get out of this place to get the answers, no matter what.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Learning the ropes</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>They entered a room covered in moss, with the remains of what seemed to have been a group of buttons forming some sort of device at its right side. The door to the next room was locked, but in the ceiling was a hole with a rope ladder hanging out of, providing a way up. "This is, or well, was a puzzle", Frisk spoke. "The Ruins are filled with these. But seeing as the one that used to open this door has broken long ago, i have constructed a replacement in the room above. So how about i teach you the -ropes- on how puzzles work?" Frisk softly chuckled at their own pun, before making her way up.<br/>Candice curiously looked at a moss-covered and faded stone plaque that hung at the wall right next to the door behind the ladder. "O..y ... fe...es. m.y p...eed. .ra.. .nes, .ool... one. .ot. ... .alk ... .id.l. r...", was all she could make of it. Once its contents might have been interesting, but now she could not make up anything from its remains, and dissatisfied, she climbed up the rope ladder.<br/>At the end of the ladder was a much more well-kept room with the exact same shape as the one below. From the ceiling hung 5 ropes, randomly scattered throughout the room, and a small wooden sign stood right in front of the ladder. At one of the walls hung a lever with "reset" written above it with what seemed to be a marker. "This sign is the clue to the puzzle", Frisk told them. "Read it carefully, and you will find the answer." As Candice read the sign, she noticed how cryptic its clue was.<br/>"Always look forward and don't look back, but not too far ahead. But first, focus on the here and now, and you will pull through." Candice looked around the room, looking for anything that could help her. The clue mentioned pulling, so it seemed like she had to pull the ropes. But she severely doubted she had to pull all of them at random. "Always look forward, don't look back…" There were 2 ropes in front of where she climbed up, and 2 behind it, so it seemed she had to only pull those. And if these words referred to the location of the roles, the "not too far ahead" would mean the farther away rope should not be pulled. And then the last part would refer to the rope hanging right above her head, and that it should be pulled first. After she pulled the ropes, from beneath the sound of a door opening could be heard. Frisk gave her a warm smile and asked her to follow them back downwards.<br/>Back in the mossy room, Candice saw the door had been opened, and as she walked through, she was greeted by a hallway with 2 small canals flowing through, with the door on the other side blocked off with spikes. One of the walls was covered in vines, most of them thorny. Frisk told her that behind the vines without thorns were hidden levers that would open the way. Flicking them was much easier said than done however, as the thorny vines had overgrown, being intertwined with the harmless ones more often than not. While trying to find the levers, Candice got pricked by them on multiple occasions, and her hands were bleeding when she had finally lowered the spikes. Frisk, who was waiting near them, was about to lead them into the next room when she noticed how badly Candice's hands were bleeding.<br/>"Oh my! I'm so sorry, i didn't know- Here, let me help you!" Frisk pulled their stick out of their pocket and waved it over her hands, releasing a bright green spore-like powder that slowly healed her hands as it landed on them. "This is green magic", Frisk told her. "Rather than harming, it heals the person it's performed on. And fortunately, that will come in rather handy during the combat training up in the room ahead. Yes, combat", Frisk responded to the worried expression on Candice's face. "You see, even here in the Ruins, monsters aren't completely friendly. And it's even worse in the rest of the Underground, so i've heard."<br/>Sweat dropped down from Candice's head. That ball that tried to kill her, was that a monster? Were all monsters like that? "Y-you mean… T-there are more creatures like that ball?" Frisk shook their head in response.<br/>"Well yes, but actually no. While they may be hostile, none of the monsters here is as malicious as that creature, most seem to simply attack out of fear or confusion, and there are a few that are just plain troublemakers. Maybe outside of Ruins there are monsters like that, but that is not your concern as long as you stay within them. But you'll still need to know how to defend yourself, just in case." They entered a small empty room, and Candice hesitantly followed. Frisk stood still in the doorway on the other side. "Well, let's begin, shall we?" Candice's surroundings turned black. The training had begun.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Combat Training</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Frisk raised their stick. "Alright, let's begin with the most important step: dodging. Ending a fight may be good and all, but if you can't dodge, you'll end the fight a whole different way. And while with Determination, you won't stay dead forever, believe me, it is not pleasant." Green leaves flew out of the stick as they waved their stick. "These leaves may be green, but imagine they aren't. Imagine they are deadly weapons, out to tear you to shreds. Dodge them all." <br/>The leaves slowly made their way across the room, leaving a single gap for Candice to run through. As she successfully dodged, Frisk threw faster and faster projectiles at her, until they became so fast she could barely even see them coming. Candice looked at Frisk in annoyance, and as a response, they chuckled. "I'm sorry, it was too funny to pass up. I think we can call this lesson complete. Now i'll teach you on the various ways to progress in a battle." A bunch of vines rose up in front of Frisk, shaping themselves like a person. "First of all, brute force. Hit this vine man like it's your mortal enemy." Candice closed her eyes and imagined she was standing in front of the ball that attacked her before. With all her strength, she punched as hard as she could. In her imagination, the ball flew away farther than her eyes could see.<br/>As she opened her eyes, a gaping hole had appeared in the chest of the vine man, and the vines slowly withered away, leaving nothing but a heap of compost where it stood. Frisk gave them a nod of approval, but worry could be seen in their eyes. "You attacked quite violently, more so than i expected. I must warn you, while brute force often is a quick way to end battles, it is not a desirable one. Fighting leads to killing, and killing leads to the gathering of LOVE. While it may make you stronger, it is at the cost of your abilities to be kind and compassionate, resulting in leaving a trail of pain and suffering behind you if you're not careful." Frisk sighed. "I know this is not a fun lesson to learn, but it's a necessary one. Now, let's lighten things up a bit, shall we?" A smile appeared on their face. <br/>"There's another method of ending a fight, that will not cause any harm: acting. Something i am quite good at, if i say so myself. Most monsters can be convinced to stop fighting through the right acts. What these are, i can not help you with, unfortunately. You'll have to figure it out yourself by studying their behavior. Try to practice by talking to me."<br/>"Uh, nice weather today?..." Candice could've punched herself for her head. They were underground, there was no weather here. Frisk chuckled.<br/>"That was a good try, but i don't think that's a useful topic around here. Although a humorful individual might see it as an attempt at a joke, i don't think a lot of monsters will be convinced to stop fighting by this. Please try again." Candice tried to think of a different topic, and eventually just asked Frisk about their day. They gave a thumbs up of approval. "Very good. I think this concludes the training." Candice's surroundings turned back to normal.<br/>"From this point onwards, i'll let you explore the Ruins on your own", Frisk told her. "Do you have a phone?" Candice shook her head, after which Frisk pulled out a device that looked extremely outdated. "Here, take this. If anything goes wrong, call me." Candice took the phone.<br/>Frisk walked out of the room, but in the doorway, they stood still and turned around. "Wait, do you have any equipment with you? Something that'll help defending yourself?" Candice looked at her clothes. They didn't look very sturdy. She answered no. <br/>Frisk grabbed something from their pocket and threw it at her. After closer inspection, she realized it was a ribbon. "How is a ribbon going to help defend myself?", she asked.<br/>"Monsters will hit you less hard if you look cute", Frisk answered. "Even if you don't believe it, please put it on." Candice did what she was told, and Frisk gave her a warm smile. "Please take care, okay?" She nodded, after which Frisk walked off.</p>
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